Stunning red sprite lightning captured from space

Have you ever heard about the mesmerizing red sprite lightning happening high above our atmosphere? Well, it’s a thing of beauty captured by none other than the astronauts in space.

Matthew Dominick, the commander of NASA‘s SpaceX Crew-8 mission, had the fantastic opportunity to witness and photograph the elusive weather phenomenon.

Sweeping dance of red sprites

Drawing the curtains back on this spectacle, let’s talk about red sprites. These enigmatic flashes of light occur high above thunder clouds in the mesosphere, a part of the upper atmosphere that extends up to 53 miles above the Earth’s surface.

In Dominick’s stunning image, these red sprites seemed like blood-red bursts of energy standing vertical off the coast of South Africa.

The red sprites were captured from Dominick’s window aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits 250 miles above Earth’s surface.

Citizen science project “Spritacular”

NASA, our esteemed space agency, aims to leverage this eye-catching image of the red sprites to encourage skywatchers on Earth to contribute to their citizen science project, “Spritacular.”

This project, entering its third year of operation this October, seeks to gather a citizen-crowdsourced database to help scientists understand these rare phenomena better.

Dominick shared his experience on the social media site X: “Super lucky a few weeks ago when shooting a timelapse of a lightning storm off the coast of South Africa. One of the frames in the timelapse had a red sprite.”

He further asked for tips on capturing more of these intriguing phenomena, noting that perhaps, “the stronger the storm, the better.”

Humans and sprites

Now, here’s where Dr. Burcu Kosar steps in. As the principal investigator for “Spritacular” and a space physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, she hopes to bridge the gap between accidental photographers of phenomena like red sprites and the scientists who study them.

“People capture wonderful images of sprites, but they’re shared sporadically over the internet,” Dr. Kosar noted. “Most of the scientific community is unaware of these captures.”

“Spritacular,” she believes, can bridge this gap and provide a common platform for sharing and studying these amazing nature’s light shows.

How to join the “Spritacular” initiative

If you’re intrigued by the idea of contributing to “Spritacular,” getting started is easier than you might think.

First, you need a camera capable of long-exposure photography, which allows you to capture the night sky in detail.

Timing and location are crucial. Red sprites are more likely to be visible during strong thunderstorms. They are especially noticeable over open areas like oceans or large plains.

Once you’ve captured your images, you can submit them to the “Spritacular” project through their official website.

Detailed guidelines and tutorials are available to help amateurs and professionals alike contribute valuable data.

By participating, you not only get the chance to collaborate with NASA scientists but also become a part of a global community dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of our atmosphere.

Unexpected show of red sprites

NASA explains that Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), including red sprites, are colorful bursts of energy that appear above storms due to lightning activity occurring in and below storms on Earth.

These TLEs are most often captured on camera by accident – typically while taking timelapse images of the Earth with a wide focal-length lens.

On the ISS, these timelapse images are usually captured by scientific instruments mounted outside the space station, like the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM).

ASIM’s sensor suite collects a broad spectrum of data for scientific research on Earth, including cameras, photometers, X-ray, and gamma-ray detectors.

To maximize the data collection, any images taken from Earth by citizen scientists can complement ASIM’s findings, thus enriching the database available to researchers and expanding our understanding of these ethereal phenomena.

Image Credit: ESA/DTU/ A. Mogensen

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